Program

Program Scope

Founded in 1975 under a development grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities (NEH), NEXA was originally known as "Science and Humanities: A Program for
Convergence." The NEXA curriculum was supported jointly by NEH and San Francisco
State University and partially by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Since fall semester
1979, the NEXA instructional program has been fully supported by the university.

NEXA provides a unique curriculum that may be used by students in several ways (major,
NEXA minor, General Education, or electives). NEXA courses are focused on areas of
interest and concern shared by a variety of disciplines and perspectives. Most NEXA
offerings are taught cooperatively by pairs of instructors representing different, but
complementary, fields of knowledge. Faculty from fourteen departments participate in
NEXA, and the program consists of about twenty courses, most of which are offered
once each year.

The NEXA program is charged with maintaining a curriculum that demonstrates the
historical, philosophical, and ethical interactions among humanities, arts, and the
physical and social sciences. NEXA's general objective is to provide a point of
convergence among diverse fields of knowledge, and to offer the student a form of liberal
education that is both modern and substantial.

NEXA courses span western cultural history from Mesopotamian origins to the present
day. The NEXA curriculum is divided into three groups: Concepts, Sequences, and Issues.

NEXA organizes and presents public events on topics of general concern to both sciences
and humanities. These events range from talks to panel discussions to colloquia and
symposia, all of which relate to some aspect of NEXA's mission of enhancing the
possibilities of convergence among academic disciplines. For example, colloquia are often
devoted to exploring the implications for ethical responsibility and public policy of such
questions as recombinant DNA and nuclear energy. Symposia are addressed to such large
intellectual issues as sociobiology, Einstein's cultural influence, and the cultural and
technological relationships between China and the West. NEXA's public events are designed
to place San Francisco State University at the center of new thought and creative debate,
both locally and nationally. Additionally, since 1996, NEH has supported H-NEXA, an
international scholarly Internet forum serviced by Michigan State University. H-NEXA
expands the scope of the NEXA enterprise for scholars and other professionals in the
humanities, arts, and sciences.

NEXA courses are available to students, regardless of major, either for General
Education or for elective credit. (NEXA 698, however, is reserved for NEXA majors and
minors.)

The NEXA minors are designed to serve the needs of students who are primarily committed
to other academic disciplines, but who believe that an understanding of the historical and
humanistic context of science or, conversely, the influence of scientific thought on our
cultural tradition, would be a valuable adjunct to their specialized educations.

Career Outlook

NEXA was created to provide a new model of liberal arts education at San Francisco
State University. NEXA does not prepare the student for any single career; rather, it
provides a coherent intellectual basis for a life as well as for a profession.

Students choosing NEXA courses for elective credit or for a formal NEXA Minor should
discover that this curriculum enhances their majors by providing interdisciplinary
background, richness and depth. NEXA offers the kind of broadly humanistic experience that
is often identified as desirable by post-graduate institutions, such as schools of
medicine and law. In this way, NEXA supplements programs that prepare students for
specific careers.

Inasmuch as NEXA focuses on questions of values, it exposes students to problems of
value differentiation and value choice that are crucial in the practice of any
professional career as well as in the conduct of one's life.

BACHLOR OF ARTS IN LIBERAL STUDIES: CONCENTRATION IN NEXA

A NEXA concentration in Liberal Studies is available. For information on this program,
see the Liberal Studies section of this Bulletin.

For current information on the NEXA curriculum, please contact Dr. Michael Gregory,
NEXA Program Director (415/338-1302).

The formal requirements for the NEXA minor are seven NEXA courses, with at least one from
each of the Concepts, Sequences, and Issues subdivisions. A student electing the NEXA
minor is required to consult a NEXA adviser no later than the second semester prior to
graduation to discuss his/her interests and to draw up a plan for the minor program.